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‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ an awesome blast of fun

Gannett
Published 9:46 p.m. CT July 30, 2014

Zoe Saldana, the character Rocket Racoon (voiced by Bladley Cooper), Chris Pratt, the character Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel) and Dave Bautista star in “Guardians of the Galaxy.”
(Photo:
AP
)

Much time and space will be spent trying to explain why “Guardians of the Galaxy” is so much fun, and why you should rush right out to see James Gunn’s hilarious, thrilling and occasionally moving film, but really, “woo-hoo!” just about covers it.

The film is based on a lesser Marvel comic (lesser than, say, the “Avengers” juggernaut), and part of its charm lies therein. The same goes for the casting: no huge names, no “what’s that actor doing in a comic-book movie” questions, and that works to great advantage. Maybe you know Chris Pratt from “Parks and Recreation,” but he’s not a huge star, so it’s easy for him to sink into the role of Peter Quill, (Bradley Cooper and Vin Diesel also are in the movie, but only their voices.) Quill is a human who winds up, for reasons you’ll see in the movie, as a galactic thief who wishes people would call him Star-Lord.

Almost nobody does.

Quill has lots of cool gadgets that keep him (mostly) out of trouble. But he also totes around an old Sony Walkman with a ’70s mix tape as its only choice of music. This tape is important because A) it is important to Quill, B) it’s important to the story and C) it’s awesome.

Don’t undersell that last point. The whole movie is awesome; Gunn relentlessly throws fun at the screen, and almost all of it sticks. He’s aiming to please here, and he hits his mark repeatedly.

Quill captures, then loses, then must retrieve a mysterious orb that, naturally, bad guys want. Like, destroy-the-universe bad guys. This gets Quill into trouble(John C. Reilly is hilarious in a small role as a galactic cop), and he is sentenced, along with others more or less involved in the orb quest, to a grim prison.

There is Gamora (Zoe Saldana), who has her own reasons for wanting the orb; Rocket Raccoon (voice of Bradley Cooper), a mutant with a smart mouth and a knack for electronics; Groot (voice of Vin Diesel), a treelike creature who provides muscle for Rocket; and Drax the Destroyer (Dave Bautista), a hyperliteral, hypermuscled fellow who wants revenge more than camaraderie.

They’re after a bad guy named Ronan (Lee Pace), which is a classic bad-guy name in the way that pretty much everything about the movie has inspiration in the tried-and-true. You might spend time bogging yourself down in the “Star Wars” bits, or the “Avengers” vibe, but really, you’d be much better off just laughing.

It’s no great spoiler to say that the ragtag gang busts out of prison (the title isn’t “Guardians of the Cellblock”). The rest of the movie is the group chasing after the orb, Ronan chasing after them and variations on that combination. That part isn’t really important. Nor is a love of science fiction. This movie could take place anywhere — anywhere there is rollicking entertainment available for your pleasure.

The acting is spot-on, with everyone taking things just as seriously as they should, which means something different for Pratt than it does for Bautista, for instance. (Bautista is the sleeper star of the film, laugh-out-loud hilarious.)

It’s easy to get carried away with movies like this, which lend themselves to fanboy hype. It’s not a perfect movie. But it is one that is hugely enjoyable, bears repeated viewings and will be as funny in 10 years (or 50) as it is now.

And that’s pretty swell.

‘Guardians of the Galaxy’

Rated: PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi volence and action and some language.